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Marriage through friends

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  • Ugo Bolletta
  • Luca Paolo Merlino

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a model of the marriage market in which individuals meet potential partners either directly or through their friends. When socialization is exogenous, a higher arrival rate of direct meetings also implies more meetings through friends. When individuals decide how much to invest in socialization, meetings through friends are first increasing and then decreasing in the arrival rate of direct offers. Hence, our model can rationalize the negative correlation between the advent of online dating and the decrease of marriages through friends observed in the US over the past decades.

Suggested Citation

  • Ugo Bolletta & Luca Paolo Merlino, 2021. "Marriage through friends," Papers 2111.03825, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2022.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2111.03825
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Giorgio Gronchi & Elena Parilina & Alessandro Tampieri, 2021. "Plenty of Fish in the Sea: Divorce Choice and the Quality of Singles," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(23), pages 1-33, November.
    2. Sebastiano Della Lena & Luca Paolo Merlino, 2021. "Group Identity, Social Learning and Opinion Dynamics," Papers 2110.07226, arXiv.org, revised May 2022.
    3. Ennio Bilancini & Leonardo Boncinelli & Paolo Pin & Simon Weidenholzer, 2022. "Preface: DGAA Focused Issue on Dynamic Games and Social Networks," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 1043-1045, December.
    4. Ugo Bolletta & Laurens Cherchye & Thomas Demuynck & Bram De Rock & Luca Paolo Merlino, 2024. "Identifying Marriage Markets," Working Papers ECARES 2024-12, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C7 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory
    • D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
    • D85 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Network Formation

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